Featuring TheRunZone?s resident coach Tinman. All participants are welcome to post and reply to topics in this section whether you?re looking for advice, or sharing your own coaching experience.

I am wondering how best to handle weeks where I have dual meets on Tuesdays and Invitationals on Saturdays. I have 5 weeks where this occurs. I have in the past done extended cool downs on the dual meet Tuesdays and either cv, tempo or progression style workouts on Thursdays. I question if this is the best method and if there is a progression of the choices I use that may be better throughout a 12 week season. Thanks!

In our district that isn't possible. I know one successful coach who handles it by having only the top kids race on Saturday so they only use the school van. On Tuesday, everyone from #9 down races. #8 through #1 run tempo until they get to the coach. That works out to be they can't pass #9. When they get to the coach, they kick. Sometimes they kick for 50 m sometimes for 1600m. It works because they really don't care about their dual meet record. It leaves 1-5 or so pretty fresh but it beats up on 6 to 8 or so depending on how good 6 is compared to 9.

I know another successful coach who has everyone race every race from the defending state champs to the last runner. It works because they only run two invitationals. You might think that kids would be more excited and work harder to see where they stand at invitationals. Pretty much the kids get that even in big invitationals they are racing the others on their team for their team spot. They really care about dual meet wins and their position in the league standings.

It is hard to tell you what will work best for you and your team. Some coaches are good at the theory and some are better at being able to read kids and pull them from workouts and races without hurting their confidence. In general, I would say let the idea of under-training them win out on those 5 weeks, meaning do they even need workouts at all? Your #1 runner who put in 500 miles this summer might benefit but freshmen and low mileage runners are most likely better served with just miles. Does having five weeks with 2 races mean you have 4 weeks without races and 3 weeks at the end with 1 race?

FTIR, Thanks for the thoughful response.I remember reading the thread on how Tom and his wife handled things and I would agree, but for at least one more year my hands are tied until next year when our district moves to a new system of scheduling that lowers our dual meets from 7 in one season to 4. Depending on the dual meet I have had kids tempo for the first two then kick for the last mile, but as a whole not my first 7.Our 12 weeks consists of:Week 1-3: No MeetsWeek 4: 2 meetsWeek 5: 1 meetWeek 6: 2 meetsWeek 7: 1 meetWeek 8: 2 meetsWeek 9: 2 meetsWeek 10: 1 meetWeek 11: DistrictsWeek 12: StatesIn the past the kids really thrived off of the progression runs, they seemed to feel so energized I ended up using it more than a lower volume of cv or tempo during their runs on those Thursdays.I more or less was just curious if anyone else out there was trying methods like I described and finding success.